Friday night turned out to be pretty decent. A friend of mine is in a band, and they were performing at a really nice venue near downtown LA. There were other performers (the place sort of had an upscale arthouse vibe), and most of them were pretty decent. The wait staff at the location were attentive, courteous and attractive.
I have, however, resolved not to even entertain anything more than friendly, harmless banter/flirting with any girls in the service industry (when they're working). It's not smart for me to mistake professional charm with real interest -- and that's all one can ever count on it being. And I'm unwilling to put anyone in the position of having to continue to be nice to a dude giving unwelcome advances, just because they can't turn business away.
So, I didn't ask for the hostess' number, even though she was cute enough and seemed like a decent girl, and even though she might actually have been interested. Ditto the bargirl -- although I did leave her a pretty good tip for keeping my water glass full. She'd certainly earned it.
I did think of striking up a conversation with the girl that sat next to me, a Vanessa Hudgens lookalike (or hell, it could actually have been Hudgens, this being LA!), but her body language said no way. I was okay with that. I have to admit, I wasn't feeling particularly conversational.
But although I mentioned all this first, the important part of the night was, of course, watching my friend Maura perform. It was the first time I'd been able to catch a show; she and her band Mad Night were actually pretty damned good.
She saw me before she went on and was pleasantly surprised to see me there. Maura is a lovely and sweet girl; I met her when she wanted to share my patio table at a Starbucks a couple years ago. Somehow we kind of stayed in touch; even though I haven't seen her or talked to her in at least a year, she totally recognized me, gave me several hugs and was really glad I came.
Before you start nodding your head knowingly: she's got a guy, she's not into me that way, and while she'd be a catch for anyone, I'm not crushing on her.
But it IS great to know her and I'm really glad I went out. I get to find out about new places in LA, see good music performed, and be in the same room as (if not actually meet, lol) interesting people.
Unfortunately, having crunched some numbers, that low-budget evening out was all I can afford to do this weekend.
But my plans for creating new income sources are progressing! I've got a solid solution for getting the money I need to get things started; all I need to do now is nail down exactly how much I'll need, and things will get rolling. The research is almost complete. So it looks like I'll be making these plans a reality before summer's end -- exactly as I'd originally hoped.
Thereafter, it will take a little while, I know, for the money to start coming in. But it will come in. It's two to four years now. And I'm prepared to work for it.
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